In many environments, such as work sites or plants, workers can carry personal protective equipment (PPE) devices to ensure that they are safe. For example, the PPE devices can provide protection by detecting a threat and alerting the worker and/or a central monitoring station.
In use, a PPE device can be associated with and assigned to a user, for example, using the user's name and/or identification number. Accordingly, when a central monitoring station monitors the device, the details of the device, for example, the duration and amount of exposure to predetermined gases, can be associated with the user, and determinations can be made regarding the safety of the user. Such monitoring can be used in both live monitoring as well as in post incident analysis (PIA) to confirm that all individuals in a monitored region are safe.
For example, U.S. application Ser. No. 14/052,013 filed Oct. 11, 2013 and titled “System and Method to Monitor Events and Personnel Locations” and U.S. application Ser. No. 14/173,423 filed Feb. 5, 2014 and titled “System and Method for Location Tagged Headcount Accounting” describe and disclose systems and methods using PPE devices. U.S. application Ser. No. 14/052,013 and U.S. application Ser. No. 14/173,423 are assigned to the assignee hereof and are hereby incorporated by reference. However, neither U.S. application Ser. No. 14/052,013 nor U.S. application Ser. No. 14/173,423 describe or disclose systems and methods to ensure that the correct user is associated with and assigned to the correct PPE device.
Indeed, in some situations, the correct user is not associated with and assigned to a PPE device. For example, User A can work in a plant during a first shift and carry PPE Device A with him in the plant during the first shift. User A can provide input to PPE Device A to indicate that he is the user of the device, and a central monitoring station can be updated accordingly. User B can work in the plant during a second shift and carry PPE Device A with him in the plant during the second shift. However, User B may forget and/or choose not to update and/or provide input to PPE Device A to indicate that he is the user of the device. Accordingly, when User B carries PPE Device A with him in the plant during the second shift, PPE Device A and the central monitoring station may associate and assign the results of monitoring by PPE Device A with User A and/or the previous user of PPE Device A instead of with User B.
Problems can arise when the correct user is not associated with a PPE device. For example, during live monitoring, if a user association and assignment is incorrect, then an emergency response team may search for the incorrect user and possibly miss rescuing a user in need. Known systems and methods do not mandate that a user update and/or provide his information to a PPE device before using the PPE device. Indeed, any such personalization of the device is often difficult, especially while a user is wearing the PPE device or other PPE devices.
Updating and/or providing user information in known systems and methods is a manual process so even when a user does choose to update and/or provide his information to a PPE device, often the user must use a keypad or other user interface of the device to navigate through several pages of user names. Indeed, a user can only select a user name from a predetermined list of names, which is limited by the storage capacity of the device. That is, a user cannot dynamically associate himself with a PPE device if he is not included in the predetermined list of names, and adding the user to the predetermined list of names is often a time-intensive process that is prone to user error and/or tampering. Furthermore, known systems and methods do not protect the integrity of data collected from a user because known systems and methods do not prevent one user from selecting another user's name for association with the PPE device.
During PIA and/or any other historical analysis, problems that can arise when the correct user is not associated with a PPE device include problems with safety audits and problems with insurance claims. For example, during a safety audit, incorrect association of a user with a PPE device can result in failing the audit. Furthermore, when records at a central monitoring station do not associate the correct user with a PPE device during an incident, the correct user may have difficulty proving to an insurance company injuries that resulted while the user was carrying the PPE device.
In view of the above, there is a continuing, ongoing need for an improved system and method of associating, assigning, and authenticating users with and to a PPE device.